Wednesday, June 3, 2009

C16 (Infernal Engines)

This is now the location of a critical skill challenge. Turtleback Ferry's survival hinges upon the party's ability to get the dam operating properly once more.

As in the original adventure, Avaxial is too weak to pose a threat. If the party decides to slay him, they do so without difficulty.

Skill Challenge: Powering Skull's Crossing

Setup: The process that operates the dam operates very similarly to a skill challenge now. Like some rituals, its use requires a supply of healing surges. If more power is needed than the creatures in the circle provide, it saps their life energy, weakening and potentially killing them. The mortal danger involved in participating in the ritual is more severe than it was in the original adventure - instead of simply losing a level, the PC could be killed outright. Their own investigations and Avaxial can provide some insight into how to operate the dam with some degree of protection, though.

Stat block:


Apologies for the compressed nature of the skill challenge stat block. Blogger doesn't like images that long. It'll look just fine when I release the compiled conversion document.

6 comments:

tadkil said...

THIS IS THE BOMB!

Scott said...

Thanks! I had fun designing it.

Craig said...

I agree, it's a very cool design and really impressive how you managed to include almost every skill to make sure any character will be able to do something: not always an easy task!

Scott said...

It was made easy by the fact that the situation provided both social (Avaxial) and technical (the magic circles) outlets for the characters. Physical characters (those specializing in Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance, Stealth) won't find much here, unfortunately, except that they are likely prime candidates to actually participate in the ritual itself.

Physical characters did have a real chance to shine during the flood skill challenge, so hopefully it evens out.

Starfox Musings said...

I saved this part because it was tricky; I'm glad you caught up. I hope this gets my player's going, as skill challenges have not been their biog thing so far. Again, I rebuilt this slightly for my own use, see http://hastur.net/wiki/Rise_of_the_Runelords_DM_notes#Grazuul.27s_Domain_4500_xp_.28level_13_encounter.29. I used your skill challenge writeup for my page; hope that's ok.

Scott said...

Absolutely. I only ask that you attribute the write-up somewhere on the page.